Gymnopédie No. 1
Erik Satie
Free MIDI file · CC-BY-SA 2.5
The Happy Farmer (Album for the Young No. 10) · piano sheet music & MIDI file
Under a minute of good cheer from Schumann, as a free piano MIDI: The Happy Farmer plays in the preview, with the file and sheet music PDF right below.
⏱0:48♪352 notes🎚Beginner🎹A#2 → F5📦3 KB
0:00 / 0:00
Preview played right in your browser with the app's real piano (lightweight version). Inside Pianovera: full multi-layer sound, fingering display and Wait mode.
Schumann wrote the Album for the Young in 1848, and its first pieces were a birthday present for his daughter Marie, who turned 7 on 1 September. The German title of No. 10 tells the whole scene: a cheerful farmer coming home from work. It's one of the most played pieces in the set, and often a student's first meeting with Schumann.
Its twist: the melody is in the left hand. The right hand answers with short, light off-beat chords while the left sings in the low register. In the second half, the right hand doubles the tune an octave higher for a few bars. It's a great workout for a left hand that's only ever been asked to accompany.
The Happy Farmer: the first notes
Left hand, which carries the melody, in letter names (C4 = middle C): C3 F3 A3 C4 F3 A#3 D4 F4 D4 C4 A3 A#3 G3 C3 A#3 A3 F3 C3 A3 E3 D3 C3 C3 F3… The rest scrolls in the preview above, with the fingering, and the sheet music PDF has the whole piece.
What you'll be working on
- A singing left hand with a full, warm low register
- Short, light off-beat chords in the right hand
- The bars where both hands play the tune in octaves
- A lively, steady tempo in a good mood
Playing The Happy Farmer on piano with Pianovera
Pianovera shows the left hand in blue and the right in green, and here the blue notes carry the tune, which helps you keep it on top of the chords. Work the left hand alone in Wait mode first, then add the right-hand chords at reduced speed.
Open The Happy Farmer (Album for the Young No. 10) in Pianovera: the notes fall toward an 88-key virtual piano keyboard, each hand gets its color, and Wait mode is there if you're starting out.
Try Pianovera for freeDownload The Happy Farmer MIDI and sheet music
Two files are waiting for you: The Happy Farmer piano MIDI file (3 KB, opens in Pianovera or any MIDI player) and The Happy Farmer piano sheet music PDF (58 KB, printable). Both come from the same engraving: what you read on the score is exactly what you hear in the preview.
The work itself is in the public domain. This MIDI engraving comes from the Mutopia Project, typeset by Philippe Hézaine, under the CC-BY-SA 2.5 license (free reuse with attribution, commercial included).
About this piece
Is The Happy Farmer hard to play on piano?
We rate it beginner: 352 notes over 0:48, spanning A#2 to F5. The first thing to work on: a singing left hand with a full, warm low register.
Where can I get the sheet music for The Happy Farmer?
Right on this page: the "View the sheet music" button opens the PDF (58 KB), engraved by the Mutopia Project from the same source as the MIDI file, CC-BY-SA 2.5 license. View it, print it, keep it.
Is The Happy Farmer MIDI file really free?
Yes. Robert Schumann died more than 70 years ago, so the work (1848) is public domain. This MIDI engraving is under the CC-BY-SA 2.5 license: free to use, commercially included, with credit to Philippe Hézaine.